$106 dentist. (At least that child's deductible is paid)
$144 Sam's for vitamins, vit b energy powder, cat litter, etc.
$42 aldi, all groceries
$21 chickfila for all 4 of us
$123 walmart order to pick up tomorrow
$44 Amazon for more vitamins and an infuser water bottle for me

Would he choose to forgo those activities if they came out of his personal money? If so, then I'd just keep it coming out of household funds. Remaining fit and active is vital and should be supported by the family.

I'd go as far to say that you memberships should also come from family funds. Now if this causes a financial strain in regards to accomplishing other financial goals then you simply redo the budget and personal funds would likely need to decrease.

I think he'd probably skip the one half marathon in the fall but would likely stay in one 'extra' volleyball league. Not sure, though. It's something we've discussed briefly and I think will come up again next fall when the payments come due for all the fall/winter volleyball leagues.

So the total amount you're spending on gyms/volleyball/marathons is about $2300 according to the above, right? That's about $190 a month. First question is: is he aware of how much this category is costing every year? Are you both ok with the total cost? Assuming you are, then move on to the second question: does he realize you're paying for yours out of your personal allowance? What does he think about that?

Are there other expenses associated with this category? Shoes, workout clothes, eating out after volleyball? How are those expenses being covered? Are they significant? Does it change how you feel about the overall cost of the category?

All of this is just noise from someone who scrutinizes expenses, though. If he's skipping volleyball but paying for it, then paying out of his personal allowance might encourage some responsibility.

But I'm betting he's going to balk at paying out of his allowance and is just going to tell you to pay yours out of the general budget. Which doesn't totally solve the problem because if you do pay it out of the general fund, and then spend your allowance on other things, your annual budget just increased by $900.

I sympathize with you.

He probably has no idea the total cost and would likely be horrified if he did. I should probably let him know that.

We don't have that many extra expenses associated with these things. We're both pretty much set for workout clothes, we're probably due new shoes in the next year or two but we don't buy them that often so I can handle the extra $100 once or twice a year. We never eat out after our games because we are way too old be out that late to begin with, never mind going out after the game! So I'm not that concerned with those extras.

I think we'll just keep having open communication about it and I will let him know the total and see what he says. We are both trying to work towards healthier lifestyles so I don't want to discourage that and we are also trying to keep other expenses down so if we can successfully do that for the next year, this might be less of an issue.

That's why these threads are needed! They keep me accountable and make me spend less overall.

Raifta, it's always tough when spending that is technically discretionary is really important. I agree about spending money to keep in shape. In the long run it's money well spent.

I'm super impressed with your low 'other' spending related to fitness. I'm still wearing the original Athleta yoga pants I bought four years ago with no need to buy a new pair anytime soon. I wear those four or five days a week when I hit the gym. Most everyone else there has a bajillion Lularoe leggings and Nike shirts. And tons of shoes. Oh, the shoes! So it's great to know I'm not the only one not buying new workout gear every month.

I'm shopping for shoes for dh. We started taking an Irish dance hardshoe (percussive like tap) class in December. He doesn't have shoes yet, has just been wearing his street shoes. I've been watching eBay etc. for deals but Irish shoes in his size don't come up often (unless you want to pay upwards of $80).

I did notice one fellow in class this week was wearing regular tap shoes, so I'm investigating that route (more options available).

Day 18: Gift from Amazon to be stashed away for DD's birthday (covered by gift card though)

Day 19: Oil change & Groceries are my planned spends today. I'm really, really wanting to go out to eat lately. Like I fought myself for a good half hour before I threw in a frozen pizza. But, I'm fighting it, so there's that.

Re: dance shoes I'm actually torn between going for whatever I can get cheaply and investing in good quality shoes because, while dh is likely to only get light use out of them, ds12 also dances and his feet are growing rapidly.

So far so good this week. Did get pulled over last night for a broken headlight, but the sheriff let me go and just directed me to the AutoZone about 200 yards away. So, $12.96 unexpected expense, but necessary, so not too bad! No other "unnecessary" so far.

But, this week has more "known" expenses and that makes me feel slightly ill, lol. Mortgage, car registration, HOA, and a few other doozies. Baptism is on Saturday, I have to either make or buy a cake for that. And, do you give presents to godparents?? I never did before but think that it might be called for this time. $15 Starbucks gift card sounds not enough, but...

I'm super impressed with your low 'other' spending related to fitness. I'm still wearing the original Athleta yoga pants I bought four years ago with no need to buy a new pair anytime soon. I wear those four or five days a week when I hit the gym. Most everyone else there has a bajillion Lularoe leggings and Nike shirts. And tons of shoes. Oh, the shoes! So it's great to know I'm not the only one not buying new workout gear every month.

Ha ha! I know - I'm still mostly wearing stuff I bought when the kids were babies and they are 10 and 12 now. I did have to buy a few new pairs of shorts because I grew and the shorts did not, but I got those at the thrift store for super cheap.

And I feel like we have lots of shoes, but that's because pre-kids I had shoes for indoor running, shoes for outdoor running, shoes for aerobics and shoes for volleyball. Over the last 12 years I've replaced each of those once but kept the older shoes and now I have 8 pairs of runners (2 are at the cottage, 6 at the house). It looks awful but has not been that pricey. So I probably by a new pair of shoes every 2-3 years in whatever category has gotten the most usage - next time around I'll have to ditch some of the older shoes from the house though!

1/18 - $52 on bus tickets.

1/19 - nothing

It's DD's birthday party this weekend. We got her gift in the fall so that's taken care of but I do need to provide food (dinner, snacks, breakfast, cake) for a bunch of kids and since she is having an Iron Chef party, we might need a few ingredients to allow for creative cooking on behalf of the guests. But most of that will be easily part of the grocery budget for this month as we are way under so far for groceries!

I had a moment of panic when I thought about what meat we had left in the meat box in the freezer and thought I'd have to go to Costco for meat soon. Costco is always dangerous - in December I went in for 3 items and came out with a cart costing over $600. But then I sat down and actually made a list of all the protein sources we had in various places and was pleasantly surprised and figure I can put off a trip to Costco for at least another week! Just have to complete my meal plan for next week based on what we already have in the house.

Always get a second opinion!!!! Our second opinion saved me at least $700 of work discovering that the alternator is fine and the battery simply needs to be charged. I'm so disappointed in the first place because they've always been so honest with us and my dad has been going there for decades. Must warn him.

The total savings is unknown though because our mechanic friend who checked the alternator is going to do the brake work under the table tomorrow

1/19 day trip started with breakfast out. Dh really wanted to do this and I obliged. He's had a rough couple of weeks at work and wanted a fun day out with me so I opted to splurge. $14 breakfast and tip for two. We packed a lunch so no additional cost there.

On the way home I bought a cake box for a cake I'm making for someone next weekend. $1.19 using a Hobby Lobby coupon. But I'll get paid for the cake so it's a necessary cost.

1/19 day trip started with breakfast out. Dh really wanted to do this and I obliged. He's had a rough couple of weeks at work and wanted a fun day out with me so I opted to splurge. $14 breakfast and tip for two. We packed a lunch so no additional cost there.
On the way home I bought a cake box for a cake I'm making for someone next weekend. $1.19 using a Hobby Lobby coupon. But I'll get paid for the cake so it's a necessary cost.

Did y'all have a good day out?

I spent $37 at vitamin shoppe, for elderberry syrup and some chewable cold and flu tablets, for ds10 and dh.

I have been wanting to run a few errands here and there all week but managed to not leave the house, other than normal kid activity running. I am going to do them all tomorrow, saving gas, time and money. We didn't have anything unexpected this week so all spending was planned - basically just bills and groceries. I did get the bill from the dentist, $98, which I had forgotten about but wasn't a surprise. I'll pay it next week when I take the youngest two kids for their appointment.

Thursday, I finally went grocery shopping. I managed to get nearly a week’s with of groceries for $80. Then, while I was out... I went to Michaels to get some yarn ($11) and PetSmart to get some Guinea Pig treats ($17)

Yesterday, dh had the day off work. He’s not so content to stay at home doing little projects and reading. So we went out for lunch at a cute little cafe in a neighboring town ($40). He’s been doing great taking lunch into work instead of buying, so our little splurge is still less than he’d normally spend on eating out at this point on the month.

I spent entirely too much on groceries Thurs night, but *mostly* things to stock up with few splurges thrown in. Aldi's had GT Kombucha, I hadn't had one in AGES. I also needed some snacks for dh's camping trip and ds' sleepover.

Yesterday I took the kids to lasertag (that had already been paid for in Dec) and I let them spend about $7.50 (to split between them) on drinks and snacks. I so rarely say yes they were floored when I kept letting them get things, I had set aside $10 but they only spent the $7.50. I spent $40 on some upcoming hs activities not strictly a need but I'm not going to feel guilt over that the kids need time with others and I'm planning stuff trying to keep it is economical as I can.

DH & I are on a strict budget for the foreseeable future (after maxing our credit cards around Christmas and having a few scary moments of "How the *&#@* are we going to pay our bills!") FWIW, the credit card issue -- we put a bunch of meds on there when DH first started chemo a few years ago and it just finally caught up with us...

Anyways... wanted to share a small victory! We maybe under-budgeted/overspent for groceries this month, and we have two weeks left and only $214 remaining to spend. (I usually spend $120-140 a week.) Well, DH wanted to move some money around but I was all like "Challenge Accepted!" So I did my grocery shopping (online) and BAM - grand total of $105 and change for this week. Score!

Apparently my self control went out the window this weekend. Amazon is sending me a few shipments for a total of $50. My Amazon app hasn't worked right since Thanksgiving, but I rediscovered the website on my computer yesterday.